The Rolling Stones US Tour 1978

The Rolling Stones US Tour 1978

Tour by The Rolling Stones
Associated album	Some Girls
Start date	10 June 1978
End date	26 July 1978
Legs	1
No. of shows	25
The Rolling Stones concert chronology

The Rolling Stones' US Tour 1978 was a concert tour of the United States that took place during June and July 1978, immediately following the release of the group's 1978 album Some Girls. Like the 1972 and 1975 U.S. tours, Bill Graham was the tour promoter. One opening act was Peter Tosh, who was sometimes joined by Mick Jagger for their duet "Don't Look Back". The Outlaws backed up Peter Tosh. Another act opening was Etta James, famous for her song "At Last".

History

The tour used a stripped back, minimal stage show compared to the previous Tour of the Americas '75 and Tour of Europe '76, possibly due to the emergence of the punk rock scene and its emphasis solely on music and attitude rather than presenting a grandiose stage extravaganza.

Continuing a schedule started in 1966 of touring the United States exactly every three years, the Stones played in a mixture of theatres, sometimes under a pseudonym (i.e., at the start of the 1978 US Tour in Lakeland, Florida, as well as in Fort Worth on July 18, The Stones were billed on the tickets as "The London Green Shoed Cowboys^[1]"), arenas, and stadiums, a practice that they would follow for many of their future tours as well. The tour was the first in which Charlie Watts used the famous Gretsch drum set that he continued to play with the Stones until his death, as well as his first employment of a China crash cymbal. The concerts featured backing vocals by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards, something that the Stones would get away from beginning with their next tour when Richards handled the majority of the backing vocals himself.

Plans were made to bring this tour to Europe, with several locations in major cities booked, but plans were scrapped for financial reasons. This broke the group's similar schedule of performing in Europe every three years, which had started in 1967. This gap-year from touring prompted Keith Richards to join Ronnie Wood on his 1979 United States solo tour, to promote his then-album Gimme Some Neck, in the process forming the band The New Barbarians.

Reception

Rock critic Robert Christgau wrote that the 1978 Tour was an improvement over the group's previous go-around, "especially when Mick [Jagger] stopped prancing long enough to pick up a guitar and get into the good new songs from Some Girls."^[2] The tour is widely believed among fans to be one of the band's greatest, largely because it was in many ways back to basics both in musical and visual terms. It meant a return to a mixture of classic Stones numbers ("Tumbling Dice", "Star Star", "Happy", "Brown Sugar", etc.) mixed with blues numbers and Chuck Berry covers ("Let it Rock and "Sweet Little Sixteen" in particular) as well as including a large number of songs from the then-newly released Some Girls LP. It was the first tour featuring songs written with Ronnie Wood as an official member of the Rolling Stones, and his contributions from this period are considered by many Stones fans as some of his greatest with the band. While no live album was released immediately following this tour, a fair number of bootleg releases showcased its musical qualities – most notably the multi-show King Biscuit Flower Hour FM recording often known as "Handsome Girls". In 2011, a CD and DVD set was released of a July 1978 performance from Fort Worth, Texas entitled Some Girls: Live in Texas '78. In addition to the complete concert, the DVD included the three songs played on the Saturday Night Live television show in October 1978.^[3]

Guest artists that played with the Stones during individual shows included Linda Ronstadt, Eddie Money, Doug Kershaw, Bobby Keys and Nicky Hopkins. Opening acts included Van Halen, Journey, Peter Tosh, Patti Smith, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Foreigner, Eddie Money, Kansas, Etta James, Furry Lewis, Atlanta Rhythm Section, April Wine, The Outlaws, and the Doobie Brothers.

Personnel

The Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Keith Richards – guitars, vocals
• Ronnie Wood – guitars, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals
• Bill Wyman – bass guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums

Additional musicians

• Ian Stewart – piano
• Ian McLagan – keyboards, backing vocals

Tour set list

A typical set list for the tour, with minor variations involving one or two of the numbers being omitted:

1. "Let It Rock" (Chuck Berry)
2. "All Down the Line"
3. "Honky Tonk Women"
4. "Star Star"
5. "When the Whip Comes Down"
6. "Beast of Burden"
7. "Lies"
8. "Miss You"
9. "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)"
10. "Shattered"
11. "Respectable"
12. "Far Away Eyes"
13. "Love in Vain"
14. "Tumbling Dice"
15. "Happy"
16. "Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry)"
17. "Brown Sugar"
18. "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
19. Encore: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Street Fighting Man" (most shows had no encore).

1. "Hound Dog" (played only in Lexington and Memphis)

Tour dates

List of tour dates with date, city, country, venue, references

Date (1978)	City	Country	Venue	Attendance	Gross	Support act(s)
10 June	Lakeland	United States	Lakeland Civic Center	—		Henry Paul Band
12 June	Atlanta		Fox Theatre			Patti Smith Group
14 June	Passaic		Capitol Theatre	3,506 / 3,506	$36,813[4]	Etta James
15 June	Washington, D.C.		Warner Theatre	—		Etta James
17 June	Philadelphia		John F. Kennedy Stadium	—		Foreigner Peter Tosh
19 June	New York City		Palladium			Peter Tosh
21 June	Hampton		Hampton Roads Coliseum
22 June	Myrtle Beach		Myrtle Beach Convention Center	—
26 June	Greensboro		Greensboro Memorial Coliseum	15,744 / 15,744	$152,030[5]	Etta James
28 June	Memphis		Mid-South Coliseum	11,999 / 11,999	$118,240	—
29 June	Lexington		Rupp Arena	24,928 / 24,928	$213,613[5]	Eddie Money
1 July[a]	Cleveland		Cleveland Stadium	82,500 / 82,500	$1,025,037	Peter Tosh Kansas
4 July	Orchard Park		Rich Stadium	Journey Atlanta Rhythm Section April Wine
6 July	Detroit		Detroit Masonic Temple	—
8 July	Chicago		Soldier Field	70,725 / 70,725	$919,425[6]	Journey Peter Tosh Southside Johnny
10 July	Saint Paul		Saint Paul Civic Center	18,000 / 18,000	$180,000[7]	Peter Tosh
11 July	St. Louis		Kiel Opera House	3,557 / 3,557	$35,570[7]	Peter Tosh
13 July	New Orleans		Louisiana Superdome	80,173	$1,060,000[7]	The Doobie Brothers Van Halen
16 July	Boulder		Folsom Field	60,000 / 60,000	$690,000[7]	Kansas Eddie Money Peter Tosh
18 July	Fort Worth		Will Rogers Memorial Center	—
19 July	Houston		Sam Houston Coliseum	12,271 / 12,271	$122,710[8]	Peter Tosh
21 July	Tucson		Tucson Community Center	10,875 / 10,875	$108,750[8]	Etta James
23 July	Anaheim		Anaheim Stadium	—		Outlaws, Etta James, Peter Tosh
24 July
26 July[b][9]	Oakland		Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum	60,000 / 60,000	$750,000[10]	Santana Eddie Money Peter Tosh
TOTAL				359,779	$4,268,911

Notes

1. The concert on 1 July was a part of the World Series of Rock.
2. The concert on 26 July was a part of Day on the Green.

See also

• Live in Texas '78, documentary film about the recording of tour

References

1. ticket stub
2. Robert Christgau, "The Rolling Stones", entry in The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, Random House, 1980. p. 200.
3. "The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas '78 DVD/LP Review". 3 November 2012.
4. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 1 July 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
5. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 15 July 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
6. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 22 July 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
7. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 29 July 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
8. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 5 August 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
9. "Rare 1978 photos of Rolling Stones fans at an epic Day on the Green". 1 December 2018.
10. "Top Box Office". Billboard. 12 August 1978. Retrieved 2 July 2020.

External links

• 'Rocks Off' page tour setlists